Author: townadmin (Page 32 of 45)

Gail PC, Judy A, Janice B and Marilyn F enjoyed a day at the new Central Library.  Judy pointed  out that it is another “destination” in Austin, to show folks who come to visit you.  The area near  the old power plant is now on “Electric Drive,” and I appreciate Margaret Moser Terrace, too.  Gail and Judy stayed for an early lunch at the Cookbook Café and recommend the chicken pot pie and chicken salad. Janice and Marilyn browsed about, enjoyed the view, and attended the Talk Green to Me session provided by City Staff.

Getting there

I parked my car at Lamar Union/Alamo Drafthouse and had to wait 3 minutes for a bus and the ride took 10 minutes!  I had purchased a day pass for $2.50 and just had to let the card reader blip my phone to pay.  I took the #803, which is my favorite, now.  Gail PC and Judy A parked in the garage for a few dollars and found space easily at 10 am.  Janice B, a true TOWNie, rode her bike there!  Yes JaniceB!

What you can do at your Library

Learn to set up your Kindle or Nook reader to borrow e-books.
Get your Library card; use it from home to reserve online and hold a title to pick up later.  Note that several suburban residents can also use the APL.
Watch a DVD movie or listen to a CD at an audio visual station.
Check out an audiobook-CD for your long road trip.
Find some darn interesting titles. Here’s one:  Radium Girls—the Rare Story of America’s Shining Women, by Kate Moore.
You can also reserve a meeting room for your small group.

Talk Green to Me series: The State of Austin’s Food System

The speaker was Edwin Marty, the City of Austin’s first Food Policy Manager.  A sustainable food system has 4 parts: growing, selling, eating, & recycling (composting); those parts need to be connected and protected. The speaker described how the city staff looked across all the city departments thru a lens of food.  Data were collected and analyzed.  They found out that everybody in Austin—across all income levels–wants to feed their family with good healthy food.  But 13 city zip codes don’t even have grocery stores, and 16% of Austin population is “food insecure.”  Access to healthy food is inequitable.  To make the situation worse, we are losing agricultural land at the rate of 9 acres a day, losing it
to the push for affordable (dense) housing (150K units of affordable housing in the next 10 years in Austin). Less than 1% of our food is grown locally, yet locally grown food is a sustainability strategy since energy (transport fuel) needed to bring it to market is less than from longer distances.

Hope on the Horizon

There are 65 community gardens in Austin, agencies are opening up public lands for community gardens, and 220 schools have gardens; other methods are being encouraged so people can eat “fresh for less,” including incentivizing pop-up produce stands at the schools.  Partnerships across agencies plan to offer incentives for buying healthy food.  A new program will be rolled out soon such that when you go buy produce at your grocery store you get 2-for-1 prices if the produce is from Texas.

What you can do

Participate in the city curbside composting.
Find more information: http://austintexas.gov/food
Also, at the National Level, find out about the various forms of the Farm Bill and let your
representatives know how you feel about sustainable agricultural and food supply practices.

MarilynF

We had a good evening kayaking Lady Bird Lake on Wednesday, July 11.  There were six TOWN-Austin women, Anna E, Debbie W, Carol J, Peg G, Judy A, Gail P-C.  We had a chance to visit before we got on the water and found out Carol J and Judy A are neighbors. Small world.

We kayaked at a steady pace around Red Bud Island and then with time left we kayaked toward downtown.  The water was smooth as glass which was perfect for all the stand up boarders we passed.  Being on the water made the hot temp bearable.  We ended the evening at Shady Grove for a bite to eat outside.  We had fun visiting and laughing.  Linda Foss will be leading the next kayak date on Lady Bird Lake, July 25.  Hope you can be there.  Gail P-C

There were four TOWN-Austin women who kayaked Lady Bird Lake. Jacque A, Judie T, Carol J and Gail P-C.  It was a bit cooler on the water and in the shade.  It was a beautiful evening on the lake. Carol J and Gail P-C kayaked around Red Bud Island and Jacque and Judy enjoyed kayaking along the shore. They saw more wild life (two great blue herons, male wood ducks, a raccoon and turtles) than we did around Red Bud Island. Although we did hear the sound of owls.

We met up back at the Rowing Dock and found that Carol, Jacque and Judy had likely met at an outing with Travis Audubon Society. We visited a bit and all decided to head home instead of going out to eat.  The Rowing Dock was staying open late for full moon boating and there was a crowd.  We kayak on Lady Bird Lake the second and fourth Wednesdays. Hope you can join us next time, July 11.

Gail

Ah, hope springs eternal!  The names listed for our outing swelled during the week, including MeetUp pals.  But when it came to the day and time, we were hanging with ‘bated breath waiting for Lisa McM’s friend, Kerrie Q’s arrival, to make our colorful boat parade a little larger.

Lisa has kept her town membership, but she had actually moved to Portland, TX and has just now returned, and paddling with Kerrie, her former and now current-again work-mate.  Their laughter echoed across the lake, a nice background sound to our outing.  The lake was calm, and only on our return did the breeze pick up. No whitecaps this time.

The new recruit at the dock needed to be educated as to Dawn K’s venerability in Kayaking Circles, which should have been perfectly apparent to him.  Not only was she wearing an appropriate, attractive, and wonderfully female life jacket, but she was also sporting a stunning knife of many uses, hinting at more challenging routes than our usual flat water.  We all took turns guessing which of the houses on the cliff was her Rollingwood residence,she declined to say.

We kept watching for the secretive herons who can often be found along the leafy shore along the lake in the direction of Redbud Island, and if we’d had someone knowledgeable with us we would know if that glimpse was really a green heron.  Further along, in the nesting ground up by the outfall of the Tom Miller Dam, we were treated to a great blue heron leaving the trees with their characteristic honk.  Observing carefully along the north shore of the lake, Maria V. may have spotted a ringtail, long gone by the time we thought to go back and look for ourselves.

Birdy highlight of the trip was a duck who paddled from halfway across the lake, directly toward Kerrie.  “Well, I have an apple,” she confessed, and handed it over while his friends gathered around, too. How did he know? Thanks  to Lisa for the photo, available after the usual (unscheduled) trip to the Genius Bar.

Supper at Maudie’s included only Maria and me, so we were able to give ourselves over entirely to real estate; her development plans wonderfully more inspirational than my coastal repairs; the usual TOWN good company.

Our next outing will be on the 4th Wednesday of June, the 27th, so mark your calendars!

Live Oak Ridge Campout at Belton Lake, June 7-10

We ended the camping season with a small, but brave  group of TOWNies.  Beverly T set up Thursday, and Judy S from Dallas arrived braving the heat in a tent! (She says it wasn’t too bad.)

Susan W, Gloria B, and Sandy O arrived early afternoon Friday to beat the heat with a few dips in the clear, cold lake.  We chilled our insides with frozen margaritas from the margarita momma to accompany chicken fajitas compliments of Susan and Beverly.   We enjoyed chatting under the stars with fans blowing.  Miss Pam and her crew arrived late Friday.

Early to bed and early to rise!  Sandy O took off to Women in the outdoors to learn welding and bow fishing.  She won two gift baskets and a handgun in a raffle!  Well worth the drive over there!

Beverly dragged Gloria and Susan out to snag a few geocaches along the lake edge, where there was a little breeze.  Miss Pam’s crew hung out in the lake all day.  After we ate great food at  Backyard BBQ, Susan led us all to the haunted Maxwell Bridge where we scared up a geocache in the oldest cemetery in Bell Co.  All’s well that ends with Dairy Queen//even if we had to visit two DQ’s t! o find ice cream!

We were up way past our usual bedtime so we slept in Sunday, awaking to blueberry pancakes and bacon courtesy of Beverly and Sandy.

We will miss each other’s company until the next campout at Lake Livingston in September!

Submitted by Beverly

What a beautiful evening to kayak on Lady Bird Lake! Six women Anna E, Janis K, Christina O, Linda F, Bonnie J and Gail P-C kayaked. Janis K brought her brand new kayak, (that fit in her car!) and she loves it. This was the first time Christina O ever kayaked. After a bit of instruction she did great! She is interested to join TOWN-Austin. We had a good time visiting along the way.

Several women witnessed a swan going after a boat. I told the story of the time Jacque fought off an attacking swan, on Lady Bird Lake, with her paddle. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of that!  We saw a crane and a few ducks. The water was calm and it was a bit breezy. We all had a good workout.

Got back to the Rowing Dock by 8 pm then we all went to Shady Grove to eat and visit some more.  Janis and Christine found out they live in the same neighborhood!  Anna and Janis shared some pictures of the quilts they have made. Such talented women!

A fun time was had by all!  Our next kayak date on Lady Bird Lake is Wed April 25. Linda Foss will be leading. Hope you can be there.
Gail P-C

A perfect evening to kayak on Lady Bird Lake!

Five TOWN-Austin women, (Maria, Peg, Gail, Diane and Lois), enjoyed visiting and kayaking. We had a nice breeze. We didn’t see much wild life. One huge swan came quite close to us. We hoped we weren’t close to a nest! But he calmly paddled pass us. We kayaked toward downtown and marveled at how the skyline has developed!

Afterwards we went to Shady Grove for a bite to eat and laughs!  GailP-C

Seventeen Townies, six guests, and seven dogs arrived on various days throughout the weekend. A few brave souls stayed in tents and seemed to be okay in the heat while others stayed in motels or campers.

We enjoyed everything offered in the campground – birding, hiking, swimming or just sitting in the water under a tree to keep cool in the refreshing spring fed water, kayaking, cycling, tubing, golfing, attending the ranger led talks on Snakes and More and the Fawn Trail Bird Walk.

Two groups drove to the Caverns of Sonoma which is a national nature landmark and ranks as one of the most beautiful show caves in the world.

We also has a special time of remembrance of our beloved JudyL with memories and prayers at one of her favorite spots on the river.

We also had a retirement of the flag presented by our former scout leader, SusanW. We had the privilege of having a former military person, Pam, help with the flag retirement.

Of course we had our pot luck and the special beverages several nights.  JuneA

Surprise!

An earlier than usual trip report.  AND Your Correspondent had a bracing half hour of trying to keep up with Diane N. and so for once was not dead last in the TOWN string of kayaks on Wednesday.

It was a short string, though; we kept our fingers crossed for errant TOWNies and friends, but the traffic is ferocious AND it was a Blues on the Green evening, so only four of us were able to enjoy the perfect evening’s paddle.  We had cool temps on the water, and a fresh breeze as we looked from Redbud Island toward the traffic crowded together on the Mopac bridge.

Peg G, with her pair of binoculars gave us a bird update; a black vulture was flying overhead, and she had seen three great blue herons. We saw a duck and a mama duck (a ‘pen?’) with five little fuzzy heads following her, larger turtles than usual sunning on a rock, and a pink Mimosa tree in bloom that made the bend where the Emmett Shelton Bridge crosses the Lake look like a Japanese painting.  Water was being released from the Tom Miller Dam, and the conversations, as we skimmed along turned to the sobering Climate Change discussion of the TOWN meeting the night before.

TOWN’s Lady Bird Lake paddles are perfect for beginners and anyone who needs a break, yet there is another kayak world that Gail P-C and her husband belonged to for many years, the descriptions of destinations and different kayaks, portages, and white water adventures lasted as far as the Rowing Dock.  Our remaining minutes were filled in watching the kayak-polo going on under the MoPac bridge.  If anyone is interested in participating, it is only necessary to show! up at the right time, Diane N. says that there IS a woman who is playing, helmets and lifejackets are provided.  Gail and I suggested bringing goggles and a mouth guard.

Although supper at Maudie’s was more raucous than usual, we enjoyed each other’s company, and talked about Next Time.  That will be June 13, enough time to get a new dry-bag.

Be sure to  mark you calendar and join us.

What a beautiful evening to kayak on Lady Bird Lake! Six women Anna E, Janis K, Christina O, Linda F, Bonnie J and Gail P-C kayaked. Janis K brought her brand new kayak, (that fit in her car!) and she loves it. This was the first time Christina O ever kayaked. After a bit of instruction she did great! She is interested to join TownAustin. We had a good time visiting along the way. Several women witnessed a swan going after a boat. I told the story of the time Jacque A fought off an attacking swan, on Lady Bird Lake, with her paddle. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of that!. We saw a crane and a few ducks. The water was calm and it was a bit breezy. We all had a good workout. Got back to the Rowing Dock by 8:00pm then we all went to Shady Grove to eat and visit some more. Janis and Christine found out they live in the same neighborhood! Anna and Janis shared some pictures of the quilts they have made. Such talented women! A fun time was had by all!
Our next kayak date on Lady Bird Lake is Wed April 25. Linda Foss will be leading. Hope you can be there.
Gail P-C